Two Things Hugh Jackman Couldn’t Figure Out How To Fit Into The Wolverine Movies

After 17 years of playing Wolverine, Hugh Jackman's tenure as the clawed mutant came to a close this past March with the release of Logan. Jackman accomplished a lot in his time playing the Marvel hero, both in the main X-Men movies and the Wolverine spinoffs. However, in regard to the latter, the actor freely admits that not all the entries on his wish list were realized, specifically noting that it was difficult to incorporate Wolverine's costume from the comics and his birthday feud with Sabretooth into the Wolverine movies. As far as the infamous yellow costume is concerned, Jackman said this:

There were a couple of things I couldn't work out how to do. Fans always say, 'When are we gonna see you in the blue and yellow spandex? We've gotta see that shot!' We tried a little bit in The Wolverine, it didn't happen---on that plane at the end he opens up a box and there's the suit, I think that ended up getting cut. So the suit was one thing but we just couldn't work out how to do it, so if anyone can work that out you go for it.

As Hugh Jackman noted, the closest fans remotely came to seeing Wolverine comic book costume was in 2013's The Wolverine, when Yukio gave him a case containing the suit inside, but he never actually put it on. Since Logan was more grounded than its predecessors, it seems like there was just never a good time for Wolverine to don those duds. Maybe it might have worked out had the third Wolverine movie been a more direct follow-up to The Wolverine, but it didn't work out that way.

As for this Sabretooth feud from the comics where Victor Creed attacks Wolverine on all his birthdays, Hugh Jackman told Collider that he was keen on adapting this particular conflict for the X-Men cinematic universe, but director James Mangold wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea. Jackman continued:

The other idea that I always loved was the idea in the comics that every year on Logan's birthday, his brother comes and beats the crap out of him. I just thought that was such a cool very fun idea and very in keeping to those characters. His birthday present was just a beating and that's the only time he sees him (laughs). I kept saying, 'Jim can we put that in?' and he goes 'Eh this is not that movie.' But anyway.

The last time Sabretooth appeared on the big screen was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which took place before the events of X-Men and fleshed out the relationship between Victor Creed and James Howlett (Wolverine's original name). While James Mangold wasn't ever interested in including the birthday feud, Sabretooth was included in early Logan drafts, where he was running a casino in Oklahoma City. While it would have been interesting to see the two brothers reunited after so many years, Logan was juggling enough material already, so we'll just have to imagine how Victor spent the rest of his days after he'd abandoned his desire to kill Jimmy.

Logan is already available on Digital HD, and the Blu-ray will hit shelves starting tomorrow.